


A Truth Universally Acknowledged

by krissykane



Category: My Chemical Romance
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pride and Prejudice Fusion, Alternate Universe - Regency, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-25
Updated: 2017-02-25
Packaged: 2018-09-26 19:42:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9919247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/krissykane/pseuds/krissykane
Summary: Frank is a farm boy who is growing old and isn't worried about being married anytime soon, or ever, which greatly vexes his mother. The thing about Frank is this: his good opinion, once lost, is lost forever.A (loosely based) Pride & Prejudice AU





	

When Frank hears about the ball happening in town, it’s from his mother, practically sprinting towards him as Frank’s sitting on the rope swing in the back yard with a book. He shuts it and plants his feet in the dirt, awaiting her arrival, just watching her run full speed towards him.

“Good lord I think she runs on drama alone.”

“Frank! Dear! Have you heard the news!”

According to his mother, a fine admirer of The Local Town Gossip, a rich man from the North by the name of Mr. Toro has just bought that crazy huge manor called Netherfield Park. It’s the place that Frank’s seen when he takes the long way to town. It’s been empty for quite a few years now, since Hartfordshire is hardly the place a couple of rich bastards would want to end up, so Frank already thinks this Toro man is half crazy.

And yet Frank’s mother has that glint in her eye. “He makes five thousand a year, at least!”

“That’s… a lot.”

“Indeed! Oh, can you believe our fortune?”

Frank shrugs. He could care less about someone shaking up in Netherfield. Surely his multitude of boy-crazy cousins will no doubt run rampant at the ball and run up Toro’s legs until he realizes that country folk are crazy, and then he’ll go back home and Frank will have to deal with his mother’s disappointed pouting for a good month and a half.

The pouting puts a strain on Frank’s nerves. It shouldn’t be a big deal but Frank’s mother has this irrational fear of her son becoming a spinster and not carrying on the family name after Frank’s father passed. 

It doesn’t help that Frank is spectacularly gay. If he wasn’t, he would have been married to his best friend Jamia Nestor for a good ten years now. They probably would have married very young and shacked up all cosy and lovingly, tending after the chickens and pigs and having no parents to bother them, but unfortunately Frank turned out gay and Jamia turned out to be not very ladylike, which greatly hindered her chances of finding a husband.

“Not like I’m dying to have one but, y’know, if I could go a full day without hearing my mother complain about my becoming a spinster, I would have definitive proof that God is real.”

Jamia had said that in church once and Frank had elbowed her in the side and almost choked to death on his laughter. It was just one great example of why Jamia was alone, not that she minded. 

So Frank didn’t get his hopes up about any of this. Even if Mr. Toro was a nice man and Frank liked him, in what universe would an extremely rich man from the North take a liking to Frank the country boy with a mouth like a sailor and his pants always half caked in mud?

“You do have some graces, Frank,” his mother sighed, smoothing down the lapels of his jacket on the night of the ball. “You are the most amiable boy in town, by far. No one has more natural charm than you.”

“I doubt that but thanks, mother.”

“You do sell yourself short, dear. It is the reason why I must accompany you to these balls! Just let me do all the talking!”

It is quite true that Frank’s mother sells him like she’s selling a new carriage. Every event is her waxing poetic about her son as if he’s not just as normal as the next person in town. Sure, Frank likes to read and he’s probably smarter than most people he knows, but he can’t play the piano forte, can’t draw, can’t speak French, can’t… well, most things that the Rich People find attractive. 

So in short, Frank has no interest beyond general curiosity in these new rich people coming to the ball. 

He arrives with a slew of cousins and they pile out of the carriage in an excited frenzy. The only one who walks back with him is Christa, who somehow ended up as sweet and delicate as she is. She somehow finds the patience to stick up for Frank’s mother in these circumstances.

“She just cares for you, is all. All she wants is to see you happy.”

“I am pretty happy. I like my chickens.”

“You would be happier with a husband.”

“Perhaps I would, but it couldn’t just be anyone. You would agree with that sentiment.”

Christa sighs, tucking a piece of dark curly hair behind her ear as they step into the party. “I do. But I feel as if the older we get, the harder we grow. I feel as if we’re running out of time.”

“Speak for yourself. I happen to be male, which, if you haven’t noticed, is advantageous to my situation. I can live on my farm for the rest of my days and not be bothered one bit. You can live with me, actually! I’ll house all the spinsters and no one will ever judge us! Where’s Jamia?”

He leaves Christa laughing. Frank takes a good look around the party and sees that it’s just only begun to get into full swing. The music is loud and his younger cousins are already dashing off to find dance partners. Frank already feels stuffy in his button up white shirt and wonders how long he can avoid his mother, who is already waving her hands in the face of a neighbor as she likely talks about the impending arrival of Mr. Toro.

Frank finds Jamia at some point, wearing her plainest dress as some sort of protest, Frank comments. She playfully hits him on the arm and says he doesn’t look too bad himself, and Frank begrudgingly admits he’s wearing his nicest clothes. His mother wouldn’t have it any other way. 

Just as they are deep in conversation about how annoying fashion is, the clamor of the party lulls as the giant wooden front doors swing open. A small party walks in and everyone gapes at them, and for good reason.

Mr. Toro is a tall, strong man with curly hair tied back with a ribbon. He has on the brightest smile and looks absolutely positively happy to be there. Frank feels nothing but pleasant vibes from him and Jamia even grins, leaning in to whisper, “looks like he really did bring everyone with him.”

“Who are the others?” Frank asks.

Jamia explains that Mr. Toro is accompanied by five women and two men. The girls are all sisters or cousins, except for one, who is married to one of the men who is called Michael Way. The other man standing beside Mr. Toro is called Gerard Way, and Jamia squeezes Frank’s wrist as she mentions that he’s worth 10,000 pounds a year and lives in a great estate in Derbyshire.

Frank thinks wow, that’s a lot of money, and the man surely looks like he’s loaded. He’s pale with light eyes and poor posture. He looks as if he doesn’t go outside much, not unlike Frank, who is always tan with the sunshine and muscled from farm work. 

And just as soon as the party died for a moment, it came back up again, and the elegant new party disappears into the crowd. 

“I bet my mother is trying to find me at this very moment so I can make the introduction.”

“Best get on with it, then. It is inevitable that we shall meet their acquaintance.”

After that, the party commences like any other, except Frank is very much aware of the two bright lights in the room. Mr. Toro is about the most amiable man on the face of the Earth and Frank is keenly aware of how difficult it must be for anyone to even try and dislike the man. He practically bleeds sunshine, with his earnestness and desire to please. When Frank and his family are introduced, Mr. Toro can’t come up with enough pleasantries to describe how happy he is to meet the Ieros, and Frank thinks they should become Lords and Ladies now with how much attention Mr. Toro gave them.

In contrast, Mr. Way, who pretty much never left Mr. Toro’s side except when Mr. Toro was dancing, was the most quiet man. It wasn’t a shy kind of quiet, either. He was haughty and judgmental. Frank could see just by the shine of his eyes just how much Mr. Way disliked being at the party. During a moment in which Frank’s mother was creating a sonnet about Christa’s beauty (which Mr. Toro vehemently agreed upon), Frank could see Mr. Way’s tight mouth and the way the ladies in the party all giggled and rolled their eyes.

Mr. Toro danced three times with Christa- two in quick succession and then one much later, like he couldn’t be helped but return to her. The entire time Frank stood with Jamia, watching the entire love story unfold as Mr. Toro stared at Christa from across the room, with Christa blushing wildly and pretending like all of it wasn’t happening. 

“Lord will you hear about this from your mother for days.”

“I know, right? I mean, she’ll be half heartbroken he isn’t gay, but if an Iero is married off, my mother is happy.”

It’s then that Frank notices Mr. Toro and Mr. Way, not very far away from them. Frank and Jamia are not noticed by their location in the corner of the room and behind a column, so Frank finds himself listening in as Mr. Toro spills his feelings.

“Is this not a most fantastic party? I can’t have you standing around doing nothing all night, Way, I must have you dance!”

“I’d rather not, thank you.”

“Are you not having the most wonderful time? I’ve never seen more lovelier people in my life!”

“You have been dancing with the loveliest person here,” Mr. Way replied, droll, absolutely no inkling of emotion in his voice.

“Oh, Miss Iero? She’s an angel. The most beautiful creature I’ve ever beheld. And I quite say, all of her cousins are quite amiable. Look! There’s her cousin over there. He’s quite handsome.”

Frank tries not to burst out laughing and stares at Jamia while he listens. 

“He’s tolerable, I suppose. But not tolerable enough to tempt me.”

Jamia’s jaw drops. “Scandalous! He’s ridiculous!”

Frank laughs. “I’ve been slighted by the richest man in the room. Don’t I get some kind of reward for being supremely unattractive?”

“Nonsense. He’s just… ugh. The most disagreeable man ever?”

“He probably is.”

Before leaving the party, Frank’s mother extends an invitation to Mr. Toro for dinner. He says yes so quickly that Frank wonders if he should start a bet with Jamia on when Mr. Toro will ask Christa to marry him. 

In the carriage going home, Frank’s mother retells the party as if all of them weren’t there, but mostly she complains about Mr. Way and how extremely horrible he was, especially compared to Mr. Toro. Frank, for the first time in a long time, strongly agrees with his mother.

His cousins crash at Frank’s farm that night. Frank finds Christa in the kitchen stealing bits of bread and they tell their own versions of the party. This, of course, leads to Mr. Toro.

“He’s everything a young man should be. Elegant, charming, well-mannered, good-humored-“

“Not to mention handsome.”

“Frank! You know that’s not what matters!”

“But it helps, doesn’t it?”

“I suppose,” Christa smiles. “And his relatives were quite lovely. I think we will find them to be charming neighbors.”

“Eh. They seemed too posh for me.”

“You didn’t speak to any of them, how would you know?”

“I’m a great judge of character.”

“Since when? You find fault in many a person you hardly know.”

“I merely take first impressions very seriously. You, on the other hand, will go through any length to try and see the goodness in someone. Even with the goodness is nowhere to be found.”

“Perhaps that is a virtue and not a fault.”

“It is a fault to take a misstep in life because you choose not to look deeper.”

“And this is exactly why your mother worries for you.”

Frank laughs. “Because I will not settle?”

“Because you will get in your own way, Frank.”

Frank shrugs. “I’ll cross that bridge when I get there. So you mean to tell me you are going to find the good in Mr. Way? Is it not extraordinary that he is somehow best friends with Mr. Toro?”

“It is. I will not pass judgment until I know him more personally, but he is a peculiar man. Not very amiable. But if Mr. Toro likes him…”

Frank dwells on that as he sleeps. How in the world is Mr. Toro, the world’s nicest man, best friends with someone like Way? Someone who insults the appearance of someone he hardly knows? Who looks down his nose at an entire room of partygoers? Who, after but a couple of hours of sparse interactions, created a general negative opinion on himself by everyone in Hartfordshire?

Frank hardly knows. He falls asleep, not knowing of the stirring the Iero family has caused at Netherfield, where the Ways and Toros discuss just what will become of themselves in the country.

**Author's Note:**

> hello I am awful at writing and I only write when I'm inspired~ so sorry if I completely forget to keep up with this, but I hope anyone who reads this enjoys it nonetheless. I apologize for typos because I literally just write this and then post it up without really reading it through. I love comments! Let me know how you would like the story to progress and I'll probably use your idea as inspiration!!! I’m also re-reading Pride & Prejudice so I’m also using that as a plot structure reference but seriously if you have any clever plot suggestions let me know. <3 THANK YOU!! :)


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